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I am very happy I will soon be sending my first donation to my graduate program. It's not much, just a couple hundred, but I will be so happy to make a contribution. It was such a wonderful experience, and I am thrilled to finally be in a position where I can give back. I learned so much there, and built invaluable relationships with an incredible group of people.

Granted, I didn't use the degree in any "traditional" manner. I didn't join the State Department and I am sadly the FBI's most unwanted. I didn't get the career I went in expecting, which involved international business transactions, but that's fine with me, 'cause that shit's boring. However, my degree is incredibly useful in the practice of law, because negotiation is truly an art form. I've seen so many people who just can't make a negotiation work, because they don't know how. I spent the better part of my day dealing with a very difficult client, who is a foreign national. Recognizing the motivations for his positions, and the role his cultural influences play in those motivations, made it so much easier to talk to him, to reason with him, and bring him to the negotiating table, where he otherwise refused to be. I'm a bit rusty on my negotiation skills, spending three years doing nothing but legal research and not interacting with the public will do that. But it's coming back to me. If I'm good at anything, it's talking to people. (Which you'd think means I'd have friends by now, but whatever.)

I'm probably going to be at the office most of this evening. It would appear The Time Succubi a/k/a Client Phone Calls ate my entire day. I've been crazy busy today, and I didn't even bill a full 8 hours, I dunno where my time actually goes. I need to figure out how to keep more careful track of my time. I hate billing, but it's a necessary evil with so many family law cases. I'm just hoping to be able to pay for myself, which I should, I mean, I bill at $250/hr.

Okay, back to work, so I can get out of here, eat cereal for dinner and start on Season 2 of Dexter. Yeah, I know, I fail.

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